I've been painting popper bodies lately for my trip to Canada. I currently have a small army of frog poppers ready to get demolished between the jaws of big northern pike.

I don't have the steady hand that some of you artists do, but I'd like to do some underbody colors, spots, & eyes (the sticker eyes come off too easily).
Any tips on painting poppers so they don't look like a 1st grader did it?

I use the 12 color Sharpie pack for dots, etc. I use the Prismacolor markers for general coloring of body hues. As for the not looking like a 1st grader, I can't help you there - that would maen I had to graduate from K.

I've been painting popper bodies lately for my trip to Canada. I currently have a small army of frog poppers ready to get demolished between the jaws of big northern pike.

I don't have the steady hand that some of you artists do, but I'd like to do some underbody colors, spots, & eyes (the sticker eyes come off too easily).
Any tips on painting poppers so they don't look like a 1st grader did it?

My painting skills are similar to what you describe. What I do is;

Get some mailing labels or some other kind of labels on clearance at officemax and use the template in MS Word.

I find a nice pattern/picture on the internet of something I want to copy and I import it in to MS Word. (resize it how you want and fill up your sheet with the same or different patterns)

I usually print it in grayscale to save my ink.

Then, I use an exacto knife and cut out the template of the pattern. After that, just unpeal the pattern and apply it to your object. Sometimes you to add a connect piece of tape to your labels to keep the pattern together. You can do each color of your pattern to make it look like the picture you want to paint.

That is my life symbol -"Don't Tread on Me!". It is on the side of my boat. Also, one that a rare few will have to learn the true meaning. I only used it to show how you can use a simple mailing label as a template for patterns. Also, I use my burning/engraving tool to cut out smaller patters that have lines it them. It works much better than scissors. You would be surprised at the patterns you can make with some creativity.

Hope you were trying to be constructive in your comments; however, they seem condescending...

I paint the eyes on my poppers using a piece of dowell dipped in paint. You can adjust the size by "sharpening" in a pencil sharpener, then cut off as much of the point as necessary to leave the size you want for the eye. Makes a nice round eye.

sb

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The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, unless they fly fish... with apologies to Thoreau

I paint the eyes on my poppers using a piece of dowell dipped in paint. You can adjust the size by "sharpening" in a pencil sharpener, then cut off as much of the point as necessary to leave the size you want for the eye. Makes a nice round eye.